The Broken Jug: Droplets of Wisdom from the Heart

Introductory Note

The phrase Broken Jug is a valuable metaphor and a symbol worth pondering upon. It gets its name from the following tale by Rumi:

Once upon a time there was a Sultan who set up his marquee on a hill overlooking the Euphrates. The people of the land dearly loved this Sultan, a great man who not only conquered their lands, but also their hearts. They desired to be known and loved by this auspicious man. For this reason, they would come to his presence and offer him gifts.

On one such day, when the rich and wealthy were presenting the Sultan with precious gifts, a poor man went in search of finding a present fitting for the Sultan. When he couldn’t find a valuable enough gift, he remembered the broken jug lying on one corner of his home. He filled the jug with ice-cold water from his village and set off to see the Sultan. Soon after, he came across a villager who asked him where he was going, and when the poor man answered, the villager mockingly said, “Don’t you know, the Sultan owns and is presiding over the water source of these lands? The water from your village is also his. He does not need whatever is left from your broken jug!”

The poor man blushed and said “So what? To the Sultan belongs the noblest of manners, just as servitude befits a slave. Even if I don’t have a gift valuable enough for the Sultan, this broken jug filled with his water symbolizes my heart filled with his love, and that is why I will go and present this to him.”

Just like this poor man, Gülen is a self-attributed “slave” who is offering his humble sermons as his only gift to God Almighty, and to the benefit of others.

We, too, have a broken jug in our hands and our aim to present it as a gift to God, the Sultan of sultans. We wanted to share this gift with our readers, a gift which is comprised of all the beauties and blessings He has bestowed upon us. Initially, it was a few of Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi’s students who were blessed to be acquainted with this fountain of wisdom, but we humbly wished to share these sermons with others so that they, too, could quench their thirst for knowledge.

The Symbolism

The Broken Jug is symbolic of the water of life, an elixir so deep and abundant that we can only truly understand it and contemplate upon its depth from the water seeping through its cracks. Even though the seeping is small, it is enough of a trickle for those who want to find their way and reach the Fountain of Truth…

The water seeping through the Broken Jug is like a mirror reflecting the inner dynamics of Gülen’s heart and soul, his profound knowledge, asceticism and piety. The water also symbolizes abundance and blessing, but at the same time it is symbolic of pain and suffering. It is as if each word in every sermon has been washed with the author’s tears, and we can almost hear the cries of pain, anguish, love and passion seeping through…

The Broken Jug is symbolic of love and humility. We all have a jug to offer as a gift to God, the Sultan of sultans and it is rarely in a neat condition. Some are broken, some are cracked, and some are covered in dirt and soil. Regardless, it is not the condition of the jug that matters; rather, it is the act of offering the gift to Him that matters most. It is knocking on His door over and over again, being aware of one’s impotence and weaknesses, in spite of what is in the jug and however little of it there may be left…

The real gifts in life are those hidden in trickling tear drops, heart-felt prayers, and the enthusiastic hands raised towards the heavens. The real gifts in life are hidden in the prayer: “O Lord! I may have fallen once, twice, so many times to have lost count. But now I am bent double and standing at Your door. For I have no other refuge or sanctuary to go to. Yes, to make mistakes is what I do best, and to forgive is what You do best.”

The story of the poor man with the broken jug continues when he arrives in the presence of the Sultan. The Sultan was such a man that, befitting of his status, he responded to the poor man with mutual love and humility, and before parting, he ordered his men to fill the broken jug with gold coins.